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Saturday, September 7, 2013

Ants are social insects of the family
Formicidae and, along with the related wasps and bees, belong to the order
Hymenoptera. More than 12,500 out of an estimated total of 22,000 species have
been classified. Ants form colonies that range in size from a few dozen
predatory individuals living in small natural cavities to highly organised
colonies which may occupy large territories and consist of millions of
individuals. Fire ants are a variety of
stinging ants with over 285 species worldwide. They have several common names,
including ginger ants, tropical fire ants and red ants.

Cashew nut is a delicious popular snack – its
rich flavour is liked by many and often eaten raw, roasted, lightly salted,
sugared or covered in chocolate. It is a
great accompaniment for tea, soft drinks and hard drinks. It is also very commonly used in Indian
cuisine. It is put in dishes like
Pongal, sweet payasam, kesari and more.
Can you imagine that they add cashew nut with brinjal and make a special
dish in Andhra ! The nut can be used
whole for garnishing sweets or curries, or ground into a paste that forms a
base of sauces for curries or some sweets.
It is also used in powdered form in the preparation of several Indian sweets
and desserts. There is also a popular
country liquor in Goa known as Fenny or Feni,
which is made from the juice of cashew apple.
Cashew in also harvested in tender form before the hardening of the
shell and used in Kerala cuisine including aviyal.

Endosulfan was used as pesticide, especially
in Kerala but has been in news in recent past for wrong reasons. Endosulfan became controversial agrichemical
due to its acute toxicity, potential for bioaccumulation, and role as an
endocrine disruptor. Because of its threats to human health and the
environment, a global ban on the manufacture and use of endosulfan was
negotiated under the Stockholm Convention in April 2011. The ban will take
effect in mid 2012, with certain uses exempted for 5 additional years. Many countries have already banned it. Recently, in a World Convention at Geneva, India
in a perceived change of stance accepted that the pesticide is a health hazard
and there would be a phased out ban with
an exemption for some crops. It has been
used widely in Kerala as it was much cheaper than organic options. At a stage when 84 countries had banned
Endosulfan, India resisted it claiming that there existed no solid proof of its
impacting human health, but found itself isolated in the convention, with
another user China also supporting a conditional ban. More set back was to follow as the Food and
Agriculture Association of the UN stated it is hazardous. Earlier, there were protests in Kasargod
region which had seen high death among the farmers who used the pesticide.

Cashew
is a tree in the family Anacardiaceae; it derives its name from the
Portuguese name for the fruit of the cashew tree, caju [it is kaju in Telegu
also]. The cashew-nut tree is a fast
grower and an evergreen tropical tree. It grows to a height of 12 m. Blossoming
takes place between November and January. Seedling trees flower in the third
year after planting. The fruit ripens fully within 2 months. The nut is attached to the lower portion of
the cashew apple which is conically shaped. The cashew nut (seed) hangs at the
bottom of the apple, and is c-shaped.
The cashew seed has within the outside shell the edible kernel or
nut. Cashew apples and cashew nuts are
excellent sources of nutrition. The cashew apple contains five times more
vitamin C than an orange and contains more calcium, iron and vitamin B1 than
other fruit such as citrus, avocados and bananas. Cashew shell oil extracted from the shells is
caustic and causes burns on the skin

Cashew trees are genuinely tropical and very
frost sensitive. The trees grow
in a wide spectrum of climatic regions between the 25 °N and S latitudes. The
cashew tree has a well-developed root system and can tolerate drought
conditions. Rain during the flowering season causes flower abortion due to
anthracnose and mildew. During
harvesting, while nuts are on the ground, rain and overcast weather causes the
nuts to rot or start germinating.

Like any other crop, they are also affected by
insects and the worst damage to cashew crops is done by Tea mosquito bug. Tea mosquito bug (Helopeltis theivora) is a polyphagus insect
pest affecting tea, while Helopeltis antonii, affects crops such as cashew,
guava and neem. Indiscriminate use of
pesticides in tea plantations has eradicated several beneficial insect
predators that fed on this bug and have led to the resurgence of other
pests. Cashew plants are badly affected
by Helopeltis. The insect sucks the juice from the tender leaves and stem,
resulting in drying up of shoots. Once
the shoots are affected, flower production is hindered resulting in crop loss.
Very often the damage is confused with drought effect. Earlier they were
controlled by endosulfan which was
aerially sprayed in the government-owned large tracts of cashew
plantations for decades.

Perhaps the ban on Endosulfan would have caused worries to cashew growers but for the accidental
discovery by a small scale farmer – N. Vasavan. He has discovered that red ants could
replace the use of pesticide to contain the attack of tea mosquito bugs in
cashew plants. This has prompted the KeralaAgriculturalUniversity in Kasargode
to refine the ant technology for larger field application. Entomology
Department of the university has begun a three-year project on the use of red
ants in vegetable cultivation to do away with the use of pesticides to curb the
insects, apart from continuing the experiments in the cashew sector.

N Vasavan, a small-scale farmer
in the district, had brought back the ant-based biological pest control in his
cashew plantation when the farm sector was heavily banking on pesticides. Vasavan planted a new variety of cashew
saplings in his small holding in 2004. After two years, red ants had formed
their colonies in a few plants. When tea mosquito bugs began attacking the
plants, Vasavan used a local concoction of bio-pesticide made out of neem cake
and garlic. “The ants perished due to the bio-pesticide. Later, I avoided the
plants where the ants had formed nestles within the leaves,’’ said the
55-year-farmer. He was surprised to see that the trees where ants had harboured
were growing better than those treated with pesticide. Soon, Vasavan started
grooming ant colonies in his cashew shrubs.

He also happened to read an article in a
magazine by Dr K M Sreekumar, an entomologist who threw light into the use of
various ants to control pests several centuries back. Vasavan apprised
Sreekumar about his experiment. With the
aid from the State Planning Board in 2007, the duo began steps to prove that
adoption of ant technology could control bug menace in cashew plants. For the
next three years, Vasavan’s 3.16 acres of land, where cashew plants grew, was
converted into a lab. The study found
that the population of tea mosquito bugs as well as the damage inflicted were
significantly lower in ant-treated plants for three years. By the fifth year of
planting, ant-harboured plants produced four times higher yield compared to
untreated plants. In ant-harboured plants, production extended up to June
whereas in untreated plants, the yield was only up to April. The number of
unproductive shoots was higher in the untreated plants compared to the
ant-harboured plants in 2008 and 2009. The study, presented in the Kerala
Science Congress in 2010, recommended that the red ant technology was a viable
option for pest management in cashew.

Thus there is evidence that grooming red ant
habitats in cashew plants would help increase production. Vasavan states that human intervention is required at the initial
stage to make ant colonies. Using a rope, cashew plants could be connected with
the trees having ants’ presence. Dried fish could be used as bait. Vasavan has
been honoured by the government agencies for his innovative pest management
system.

Nature has its innovative ways
and there are individuals like Vasavan who with their ingenuous methods are
doing service to the society.

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